With about 1,300 rooms in the planning pipeline, Cork’s stock of hotel beds could jump by 60%

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Tommy Barker

Over 1,300 new hotel beds are in various stages of planning in Cork city and if even half come though could boost hotel capacity by 30% — “but the Cork Events Centre proceeding is necessary for the city to exploit its true potential,” says Tom Barrett, director of Hotels and Leisure at Savills.

He lists seven proposed new hotels/hostels and four extensions:“if these projects were completed, it would represent a very significant increase on current stock.”

Hoteliers and developers are considering projects with 1,355 new bedrooms, on top of current Cork hotel stock of 2,297 bedrooms, a notional 60% increase.

The projects include the 165-bed Maldron Hotel on Beasley Street/South Mall, the Kingsley Hotel with approval for 63 additional bedrooms, Ireland’s first floating hotel the 96-bed ‘floatel’ at Penrose Quay.

Also planned are 217 new rooms at the M/Metropole, 209 at a new hostel at 9 Parnell Place, 220 beds at Sullivans Quay by BAM, a speculative site at Andersons Quay may provide 180 beds, while the Horgans Quay site acquired by Clarendon/BAM is in for planning for 136 hotel beds; the New York-based Times Square Developments, who’ve acquired the Port of Cork site, are in pre-planning talks, with c 100 hotel beds proposed as part of an ambitious, tall mixed-use development.

Also in the mix, the Kingsley has approval for 63 new beds, and the Montenotte, as part of an ongoing upgrade, has six more rooms to add.

“The Cork hotel market has strengthened in recent years. There is now significant demand for additional bedrooms in the city, and Savills expect that a number of the planned schemes will proceed,” says Tom Barrett adding “current office development plans are very positive for the hotel sector.”